text:
Volume 3 - Approaches to Language and Cognition (2009)
1. Introduction
2. Theoretical background
3. Method
3.1 The choice of source domains and data sources
3.2 Source-domain-oriented approach
3.3 Analogy-based prediction method
3.4 Other methods
4. Metaphors of anger
4.1 A brief summary of anger metaphors identified in previous research
4.2 Anger metaphors identified by this study
5. Application of the source domains of anger metaphors onto other target concepts
5.1 The issue of metaphor scope
5.2 Application of the analyzed source domains onto other target concepts within the domain of emotion
5.3 Application of the analyzed source domains onto the target concepts outside the domain of emotion
5.4 Some implications of the analysis for the relationship between emotion and rational thought
6. Universality in the conceptualization of anger
6.1 Horse metaphors of anger in Finnish, Turkmen, Swedish and Russian
6.2 Container metaphors of anger in Finnish, Turkmen, Swedish and Russian
6.3 Plant metaphors of anger in Finnish, Russian and Swedish
6.4 Snake metaphors of anger in Turkmen and Russian
6.5 Child metaphors of anger in Finnish, Russian and Swedish
7. Conclusions
Appendix: Method details
Orazgozel Esenova (firstname.lastname@example.com), Scientific Advisor to the Publishing House CA&CC Press® AB (Sweden)
This paper is written within the framework of cognitive semantics and examines a group of anger metaphors which have largely been ignored by cognitive linguists. These metaphors map the source domains of animal, container, plant and child onto the target domain of anger. The metaphorical expressions analyzed in this study have been taken from various dictionaries, the BNC and the Internet. The data elicited from dictionaries and the BNC have been collected by using the source-domain-oriented approach. Initially, a group of lexical items related to the above source domains are selected. The dictionary and corpus entries for these items are then investigated. Next, metaphorical anger expressions containing the search items are retrieved and clustered under their conceptual metaphors.
The source-domain-oriented method works well when applied to corpus and dictionary data. However, it works less well when applied to linguistic data on the Internet. When the Internet is searched for a particular source domain word or expression, the search engine may give many irrelevant hits. Usually, the problem is remedied by adding more keywords to the existing query. However, to do this it is necessary to know which words and expressions are more likely to co-occur with the lexical item under examination. An analogy-based method of predicting possible collocational patterns of the source domain vocabulary has been developed and applied so as to circumvent this problem. The Internet was searched for the predicted collocations and the metaphorical anger expressions associated with them were retrieved and analyzed under their conceptual metaphors. The study shows that the word collocations elicited by this method allow relevant linguistic metaphors to be found on the Internet without difficulty.
This paper is written within the framework of cognitive semantics and examines a group of anger metaphors which have largely been ignored by cognitive linguists. These metaphors map the source domains of animal, container, plant and child onto the target domain of anger. Within the animal source domain, two subdomains are chosen: the horse and the snake domains. In the majority of the container metaphors analyzed in this study, voice is conceived of as an emotion container. This distinguishes them from the previously investigated container metaphors for emotions where the container corresponds to the body. This study has three main objectives: a) to identify and describe the conceptual mappings from the above source domains onto the target domain of anger; b) to find out whether these source domains are specific to the concept of anger or whether they have an application outside the anger domain; c) to find out whether the analyzed anger metaphors have counterparts in other languages.
The article consists of the following parts: Part 1 is introduction; part 2 presents a brief overview of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory which provides a theoretical background for the current research; part 3 presents the methods and approaches selected and illustrates their application by example; part 4 considers the anger metaphors identified by this research and gives an account of the findings obtained from the analysis; part 5 deals with the issue of the scope of metaphor and intends to find out whether the source domains of the anger metaphors analyzed have an application that extends beyond the concept of anger; part 6 attempts to elucidate whether the anger metaphors identified in this study have their counterparts in other languages. In other words, it deals with the aspect of universality of anger metaphors. Finally, part 7 presents the study conclusions.
The Conceptual Metaphor Theory discriminates between two levels of metaphor: the conceptual level and the linguistic level. The former is represented by conceptual metaphors, that is, a set of systematic correspondences or mappings between a source domain and a target domain. The source domain is predominantly associated with some tangible physical experiences and therefore it is more concrete than the target domain. For instance, the source domain of journey is more concrete and less complex than the target domain of love in the love is a journey metaphor. It is a conceptual domain that we utilize in order to understand the target. The target domain is more abstract than the source domain and it is primarily associated with such intangible, abstract experiences as emotions, ideas, thoughts, etc. The target domain is comprehended and structured in terms of the source domain. Furthermore, in cognitive linguistics, a conceptual domain is understood to be any coherent organization of experience. The linguistic level of metaphor is represented by linguistic metaphors (metaphorical expressions) and they are verbal manifestations of conceptual metaphors. For example, the following metaphorical expressions are the surface manifestations of the metaphor argument is war (see Lakoff & Johnson 1980:4).
The hallmark of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory is that it contemplates metaphor as a matter of thought and cognition as opposed to language. For instance, G. Lakoff and M. Johnson (1980:153) emphasize that "Metaphors are primarily a matter of thought and action and only derivatively a matter of language". Due to the fact that metaphorical expressions are linked to metaphorical concepts in an organized manner, such expressions are regarded to be the main evidence for the existence of conceptual metaphors. As G. Lakoff and M. Johnson (1980:7) put it:
Since metaphorical expressions in our language are tied to metaphorical concepts in a systematic way, we can use metaphorical linguistic expressions to study the nature of metaphorical concepts and to gain an understanding of the metaphorical nature of our activities.
The principle of unidirectionality declares that the metaphorical process typically goes from the more concrete and less intricate to the more abstract and more intricate and not the other way around. Therefore, more abstract concepts are understood in terms of more concrete ones. For instance, in the love is a journey metaphor, the abstract concept of love is understood in terms of a more concrete concept of journey. However, it is uncommon to think of a journey in terms of love.
Moreover, metaphor highlights some aspects of the target concept and hides some other aspects of the same concept. For instance, the argument is war metaphor highlights the battling aspect of a verbal argument. At the same time, it hides the co-operative aspect of arguing that is inconsistent with it. As G. Lakoff and M. Johnson (1980:10) explain it:
... in the midst of a heated argument, when we are intent on attacking our opponent's position and defending our own, we may lose sight of the cooperative aspects of arguing. ...
The source domains chosen for analysis, namely, the domains of animal, plant, container and child are rooted in the most fundamental human experiences such as farming, child rearing and containment. Humans have a centuries-long experience of raising children, agriculture, interacting with animals and of containment. Therefore, there is a potential possibility that people may use their knowledge in these fields in order to make sense of a vast range of abstract target concepts, so it was decided to investigate the conceptual mappings from the above source domains onto the target domain of anger. A variety of anger metaphors with the aforementioned source domains are presented in this study. The metaphorical expressions analyzed are mainly retrieved from the BNC corpus, the Internet, The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), The Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (CALD), and The Online Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus (ODET). The linguistic data have been gathered by using two methods of metaphor identification: a) the source-domain-oriented approach; b) the analogy-based pattern prediction method.
The general description of the source-domain-oriented method and of the ways in which it is applied to corpus texts is given by A. Stefanowitsch (2006a). The method was initially developed for corpus texts by A. Deignan (1999). In the present study, the application scope of the method is extended: it is applied both to corpus and dictionary texts. One apparent advantage of this approach is that all metaphorical expressions contain lexical items from their source domains, hence by looking for the dictionary and corpus entries for the lexical items related to particular source domains, one may arrive at the metaphorical expressions of which they are a part.
Thus, in this approach, the researcher first selects individual lexical items associated with the source domains that he/she wants to investigate. Then he/she searches for the selected lexical items in dictionaries and/or corpora. In the following step, the researcher retrieves the metaphorical expressions from the dictionary and corpus entries for the selected source domain lexical items and classifies them under their conceptual metaphors. The word lists related to each chosen source domain are given in the appendix. Let's illustrate the method by example.
One source domain word selected for analysis is unbridled and it is related to the domain of horse. The following metaphorical anger expression was found in the ODET by searching for the word unbridled.
In this expression, anger is described in terms of a horse. Therefore, it is classified under its conceptual metaphor anger is a horse. The following linguistic metaphor was found in the BNC in the entry for the word rein.
This metaphorical expression also features anger as a horse. Therefore, it was placed under the same conceptual metaphor. Other metaphorical expressions classified under the same conceptual metaphor have been retrieved by using the following source domain lexical items: bridle, curb and harness (see section 4.2.1).
Some linguistic metaphors analyzed are taken from the Internet. The choice of this strategy is determined due to the following reason. The source-domain-oriented approach works well when applied to dictionary and corpus texts, however it works less well when applied to the Internet texts due to the large amount of irrelevant hits that the search engines provide. The problem is usually remedied by adding more words or phrases to the chosen search word.
However, this requires knowledge about which vocabulary is likely to occur in the linguistic metaphors that are searched for. So as to circumvent the problem an analogy-based method for the prediction of the collocation patterns of the source vocabulary was developed. Thus, the collocation patterns of the chosen source domain vocabulary in the metaphorical expressions used about the target concepts other than anger were studied initially. Then the found patterns were used as a model for predicting analogical patterns in the possible metaphorical anger expressions. Let's illustrate the method by example.
The word germinate is associated with the source domain of plant. If you search for this word in the Internet with the help of Google, the search engine will retrieve a tremendous amount of irrelevant information. It is possible to reduce the amount of search results by adding additional words and phrases to germinate. However, in order to be able to do this, you need to know which words are likely to combine with germinate in the metaphorical expressions you are looking for. The difficulty is that we do not have such a priori knowledge about the collocation patterns of germinate.
Nevertheless, such patterns can be predicted. To do this, I first studied the collocation patterns of germinate in the metaphorical expressions used about the target concepts other than anger. To mention two examples:
These linguistic metaphors have been found in the ODET and CALD in the word entry for germinate (the dictionary entries for germinate in the ODET and CALD do not contain any metaphorical anger expressions). In both linguistic metaphors, germinate occurs together with the word idea that refers directly to the target concept of idea. Thus the collocation pattern found here is idea germinate (-s, -ed, -ing). Here an analogy-based prediction can be made: if germinate were to occur in a metaphorical anger expression, it would combine with the target domain word anger or its near-synonyms. Hence, the predicted pattern for the possible anger expressions would be anger germinate (-s, -ing, -ed). Therefore, the Internet was searched for this pattern and the metaphorical expressions containing such a pattern were elicited without difficulty. Presented below is one linguistic metaphor elicited from the Internet by using the above method. I used the inflected form of germinate when retrieving this metaphor.
As is evident, anger and germinate do not occur in each other's immediate neighborhood in the above example. However, both of them are present in this anger metaphor. Furthermore, the metaphor describes anger in terms of a plant. Therefore, it was placed under its conceptual metaphor anger is a plant. A more detailed description of the method is given in the appendix. The metaphorical expressions retrieved with the help of this method contain words and expressions both from their source and the target domains.
It should be mentioned that metaphors can be retrieved from data sources by employing the target-domain-oriented approach because some (but not all) linguistic metaphors contain vocabulary from their metaphorical target domains. This method was developed by A. Stefanowitsch (2006b) and allows the exhaustive description of the metaphorical mappings associated with particular target domain items in a data source. One target domain examined by A. Stefanowitsch was the anger domain and most metaphorical mappings associated with the target domain lexical items like anger have been identified by the author. Therefore, it was decided not to use the target-domain-oriented methodology. In addition, the method is not readily adaptable to dictionary texts since it is limited to a restricted amount of the target domain lexical items like anger and fury. Dictionaries contain few linguistic metaphors under the entries for the nouns like anger and fury. Furthermore, a set of other methods for metaphor identification have been developed and applied by researchers (Pragglejaz Group 2007, Steen 2002, Stefanowitsch 2006a). Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages.
Summing up, among the existing metaphor identification methods the source-oriented approach has proven to be more useful for the purposes of the current study. Previously, the method was used entirely in corpus-based investigations; in the current study its scope of application has been extended to include dictionary texts. Together with its advantages, the method also has its limits: it is not straightforwardly applicable to Internet texts. The problem has been solved by combining it with the analogy-based pattern prediction approach. The combined method has proved effective: many metaphorical mappings associated with the target concept of anger have been identified and accounted for.
A thorough study of anger metaphors has been carried out by Z. Kövecses (1986, 2000, 1990), G. Lakoff (1987) and R. Gibbs (1994). A summary of the conceptual metaphors associated with anger has been given by Z. Kövecses (2000). They are the following:
Apart from this, G. Lakoff (1987:392-395) and Z. Kövecses (1986:23-25) have analyzed the anger is a dangerous animal metaphor. It is beyond doubt that previous cognitive linguistic investigations into anger metaphors contributed a great deal to our understanding of the ways in which people conceptualize anger. However, as will be evident from the results of the present study the existing list of anger metaphors is far from exhaustive. Unfortunately, many crucial metaphorical patterns of anger conceptualization have been overlooked in previous research. The present study aims to fill this gap.
The animal metaphors for anger identified by the current study are the subcategories of the general metaphor anger is a dangerous animal mentioned above. Therefore, it would be reasonable to give a brief characterization of this general metaphor before introducing the new metaphors. Thus, the anger is a dangerous animal metaphor describes anger as a sleeping animal that is dangerous to awaken, something that needs to be restrained and something with insatiable appetite. The following correspondences can be distinguished in this metaphor (see Lakoff 1987:393).
The animal metaphors identified by this study map the source domains of horse and snake onto the target domain of anger. They are presented below.
In the metaphor described below the emotion of anger is characterized in terms of a horse.
The anger is a horse metaphor describes anger as a horse that is dangerous if it is not restrained. The harm that the horse may cause can be avoided if it is held under strict control. The following correspondences can be identified in the anger is a horse metaphor.
The horse domain is a suitable source domain for anger conceptualization for the following reasons. We know from our experience that an uncurbed horse is hazardous to ride. Such a horse may run at a dangerously high speed and it may throw off the rider or trample over him/her, etc. It may also trample over gardens and destroy things in its surroundings. Regardless of how much we like horses, we may not want to ride an uncurbed horse. The message conveyed by the anger is a horse metaphor is that in the same way as an unbridled horse may cause harm to the horse owner and to others, anger may cause harm to the angry person and to others if it is not controlled. Apart from being a dangerous animal, a horse also has some other characteristics: it is a strong, powerful and energetic animal and it shows intense reactions. Due to these reasons, the horse domain gets mapped onto such an intensive emotional state as anger.
The conceptualization of anger as a horse is not a new phenomenon. This is a deeply entrenched way of thinking about anger in Western culture. For instance, in Henry VIII written by Shakespeare, we find the following lines:
Anger is likeA full-hot horse, who being allow'd his way,Self-mettle tires him.
Moreover, the tendency to conceptualize anger in terms of a horse existed in Western culture long before the Shakespearean period. For instance, in the excerpt presented below (quoted from Annas 2000:10), the Greek physician and philosopher Galen born in AD 129, describes the emotion of anger experienced by Medea, the protagonist in Euripides' play Medea, in terms of a horse. In Euripides' play, Medea kills her two children in order to hurt her husband Jason, who abandoned her.
She knew that she was performing an impious and terrible deed ... But then again anger like a disobedient horse which has got the better of the charioteer dragged her by force towards the children ... and back again reason pulled her ... And then again anger ... and then again reason.
Furthermore, another Greek philosopher, Plato, describes passions in general in terms of an ugly horse in his Chariot Allegory in the Phaedrus. He speaks of the human soul in terms of a charioteer with two horses. One of the horses has an aesthetically pleasing appearance and noble qualities: it is white and long-necked, well-mannered and moves without being prodded. The white horse symbolizes rational and moral dispositions. The second horse has an ugly appearance and ignoble qualities: it is black, short-necked, with bloodshot eyes and it is ill-mannered and cannot run without being goaded. The black horse embodies passions and appetites. Here passions and appetites are understood to be irrational forces by Plato. Finally, the charioteer symbolizes reason. In Plato's view, the human soul works in harmony when rational and moral dispositions, as well as passions and appetites, are guided by reason. Plato describes the two horses in the following manner:
... The right-hand horse is upright and cleanly made; he has a lofty neck and an aquiline nose; his colour is white, and his eyes dark; he is a lover of honour and modesty and temperance, and the follower of true glory; he needs no touch of the whip, but is guided by word and admonition only. The other is a crooked lumbering animal, put together anyhow; he has a short thick neck; he is flat-faced and of a dark colour, with grey eyes and blood-red complexion (Or with grey and blood-shot eyes.); the mate of insolence and pride, shag-eared and deaf, hardly yielding to whip and spur.
Moreover, in some metaphorical expressions an angry person's behavior is spoken about in terms of an aggressive horse behavior. For instance, people perceive a horse's bridling behavior as a sign of aggression. When a horse bridles, it throws its head up. Among other things, the horse may bridle when reined in while attempting to escape from displeasure. Thus, in English, angry human behavior is understood in terms of the bridling behavior of a horse. This yields the following metaphor.
The above metaphor is a subcategory of the general metaphor angry behavior is aggressive animal behavior mentioned in section 4.1.
The metaphors discussed in this section map the source domain of snake onto the target domain of anger. In the metaphor presented below, angry speech behavior is understood in terms of an aggressive snake behavior. This yields the metaphor angry speech behavior is aggressive snake behavior. It can be classified as a subclass of the metaphor angry behavior is aggressive animal behavior.
In the above metaphorical expressions, a person's angry speech behavior is understood in terms of the hissing behavior of a snake and the deadly venomous attack of a snake. These snake behaviors are extremely dangerous; before striking its prey, a snake emits a hissing sound. Then it attacks the prey, and kills it. Since in the folk belief angry behavior is understood to be a violent, dangerous behavior it is conceptualized in terms of an aggressive snake behavior.
In the following metaphor, an angry gesture is understood in terms of a snake behavior.
It is doubtful whether this metaphor can be classified as a subcategory of the general metaphor angry behavior is aggressive animal behavior. This is because some other human emotional gestures that are characteristic of embarrassment and fear are also thought of in terms of a twisting snake behavior. As we know, embarrassment and fear are not associated with aggressiveness. For instance, such metaphorical expressions as (41) She is writhing with embarrassment; (42) He squirmed nervously are commonly used in English. It seems to be the case that the metaphors that conceptualize an emotional gesture in terms of a twisting snake movement are motivated by a perceived similarity between the twisting emotional gestures of a person and a snake's wriggling movement. The emotional gestures that are understood in terms of a snake movement are very intense gestures.
Furthermore, the English language conceptualizes anger as an old, necrotic, cast off snake skin. This yields the metaphor anger is an old snake skin. The metaphor characterizes anger as an undesirable emotion.
The following correspondences can be identified in the metaphor anger is an old snake skin.
The metaphor anger is an old snake skin is motivated by the biological process of skin shedding in snakes, which is labeled as ecdysis. When a snake grows, its skin does not lengthen to cover its enlarged body. Therefore, snakes grow a new skin underneath the old one and when an appropriate time comes, they shed their old skin to replace it by the new one. Snakes shed several times a year. The above metaphor describes anger in terms of an old, outworn, necrotic snake skin that needs to be gotten rid of. The inability to shed their skin is harmful for snakes: if a snake does not shed it may not grow. This may lead to the death of the snake. Poor shedding in snakes is believed to be a sign of bad health or another imbalance in its organism. In a parallel fashion, the retention of anger is understood to be harmful for the mental well-being of the angry person in the metaphor above. Therefore, the message conveyed here is the following: in the same way as a snake sheds its old necrotic skin and grows a new one, we should get rid of anger and allow new positive emotions to take place.
It is important to emphasize that the image of an old snake skin has historically been used in metaphorical expressions in order to make sense of some abstract concepts that were considered undesirable. For instance, in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (Act 2, Scene 5) we find the following line (45) Cast thy humble slough and appear fresh which in this particular context can be interpreted as "get rid of your lowly manners and behave in a new way". Thus, the old snake skin metaphors are deeply embedded in the conceptual system of English. Moreover, in Act 3, Scene 2 of the same play, we find another snake-related image. In this scene, Sir Toby addresses Sir Andrew as (46) dear venom because of his angry temper. The latter example shows clearly that the conceptual link between the snake source domain and the target domain of anger has existed historically.
Generally speaking, in Western culture there are both positive and negative associations attached to snakes. For instance, in the Biblical tradition, the serpent embodies Satan who is the arch adversary of humankind. According to this tradition, snakes are associated with fraudulence. For instance, Genesis 3:1-6 says that the serpent beguiled Eve to eat the prohibited fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, deceiving her into transgression against God's law. Furthermore, snakes have a forked tongue: it is divided into two different parts at the tip. The forked tongue symbolizes double-mindedness in English culture. Thus, the English expression (47) to speak with a forked tongue means "to speak fraudulently". Moreover, the Bowl of Hygieia - a jar with a snake wrapped around it - is an international pharmacological symbol. In this context the snake symbolizes healing. In addition, snake shedding is commonly associated with renewal and reincarnation in Western culture.
Generally speaking, container metaphors are motivated by the container image schema. Therefore, it would be appropriate to start this section by discussing the concept of the container image schema and give some examples of the previously identified emotion metaphors motivated by this schema. In cognitive linguistics, an image schema is defined as "a recurring, dynamic pattern of our perceptual interactions and motor programs that gives coherence and structure to our experience" (Johnson 1987:xiv). The container image schema is one of the most fundamental schemas used in abstract reasoning. Many conceptual metaphors that we use both in our everyday reasoning and academic conversation are motivated by the container image schema. Great significance is attached to the role of this schema in metaphorical conceptualization by such scholars as G. Lakoff (1987:272-273) and Z. Kövecses (2000:155-156).
The container image schema has three different structural elements: an interior, an exterior and a boundary. The schema is a gestalt structure where parts are comprehended within the framework of a larger whole. For instance, you cannot have one of the structural elements of the container image schema without the other: an interior does not exist without an exterior and boundary, an exterior does not exist without an interior and boundary and a boundary does not exist without an interior and exterior. Furthermore, our recurring, kinesthetic experiences of bodily containment give rise to the container image schema.
It has been established in previous cognitive linguistic studies that many emotion metaphors that we use are motivated by the container image schema. Such metaphors view the body and the body parts as containers and the emotions as fluids and substances held in those containers. The major container metaphor of emotion is reckoned to be the body is a container for emotions. This is a conventional metaphor, where the body is conceived of as a container for emotions, such that the emotions occupy a certain level, can overflow, and can be gotten rid of (Loos et al. 1999). Some metaphorical expressions manifesting this metaphor are presented below.
Furthermore, it was found that emotions can also be understood in terms of a hot fluid kept in a container. A case in point is the metaphor anger is the heat of a fluid in a container (Kövecses 1986:14):
It is common knowledge that the container metaphor focuses on two different aspects of emotions: the intensity aspect and the control aspect. There is a correlation between the intensity of emotion and the amount of the fluid kept in the container. When the intensity of emotion increases the level of the fluid in the container rises. When there is too much fluid in the container and the internal pressure is too high the fluid overflows the container or the container explodes. The explosion of the container occurs with very intense emotions like anger. For example:
Two metaphorical expressions which describe fear as a fluid held in a container are presented below. In (55) the quantity of the fluid is too large and the container is overflowing; in (56) the container does not hold any amount of liquid.
The quantity of the fluid held in each container correlates with the intensity of fear. In (55) the large amount of the fluid held in the container corresponds to the high level of the intensity of fear. In (56), the absence of the fluid correlates with the zero level of the fear intensity.
Clearly, the above linguistic metaphors capture the intensity aspect of fear. Simultaneously, they also capture the control aspect of this emotion. When the fluid overflows the container, fear is out of control. However, when the fluid is kept inside the container, fear is under control. In the case of anger, the emotion is out of control when the container explodes.
What is more, emotions may also be conceptualized as substances in the body-container. For example:
The metaphorical expressions collected for the current study show that the body or the body parts are not the only containers for emotions. For instance, in the metaphors that will be discussed below, voice is conceptualized as an emotion container and emotions are imagined to be fluids and substances held in that container. Despite the fact that the voice-container metaphors are commonly used in English to make sense of emotions they have largely been ignored by cognitive linguists.
The above metaphor can be classified as an instantiation of the general metaphor voice is a container for the emotions in this particular case. The following metaphorical expressions are the linguistic manifestations of the metaphor anger is a fluid in a container. This metaphor too derives from the general metaphor voice is a container for the emotions in this particular case.
It should further be emphasized that anger can also be thought of as a hot fluid held in the voice.
A conclusion that can be drawn from the above discussion is that the anger is a fluid in a container metaphor and the anger is a substance in a container metaphor instantiate not one but two general metaphors: the body is a container for emotions and voice is a container for emotions.
It should be pointed out that there are considerable differences between the container presented in the source domain of the metaphor the body is a container for emotions and that presented in the source domain of the metaphor voice is a container for emotions. The container conveyed by the former is the body. As is known, we conceive of our bodies as three-dimensional containers, into which we put things like food, air, water, etc. and out of which the bodily wastes emerge. In other words, our bodies have an inside, an outside and a bounded surface. However, the voice-container existing in the source domain of the latter does not have such visible elements as an interior, an exterior and a boundary. We cannot put physical entities inside the voice and things do not emerge out of the voice. Moreover, there are no visible boundaries that would separate the voice from the things in the outside the world. Nevertheless, we conceive of our voice as a three-dimensional container into which we can put fluids and substances and out of which things can emerge. The question is how can this be explained? The answer is that there is a human tendency to impose a boundary on various things or phenomena even when they do not have any visible physical boundaries. The concept of territoriality seems to be of great importance for humans. In their book Metaphors We Live By, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson explain this tendency in the following manner (1980:29-30).
But even when there is no natural physical boundary that can be viewed as defining a container, we impose boundaries - marking off territory so that it has an inside and a bounding surface - whether a wall, a fence, or an abstract line or plane. There are few human instincts more basic than territoriality. And such defining of a territory, putting a boundary around it, is an act of quantification. Bounded objects, whether human beings, rocks, or land areas, have sizes. This allows them to be quantified in terms of the amount of substance they contain.
Thus, when we impose an imaginary boundary on voice and view it as a container for the emotions, we conceive of emotions as measurable substances or fluids. When we say (68) His voice is full of anger or (69) His voice is devoid of anger, our purpose is to measure the intensity of anger. We think and speak of intensity in terms of the quantity of a physical substance or fluid held in a container.
However, there is also another important reason for why voice is conceptualized as a container for emotions. Voice conveys emotion and we make judgments about other people's emotional states from the sound of their voice. That is why it is natural that voice is imagined to be a container for the emotions. Researchers have clearly and convincingly shown that there exists an obvious link between a person's emotional state and the acoustic quality of his/her voice. For instance, I.R. Murray and J.L. Arnott (1996) emphasize that disparate emotional states will result in different acoustical changes in a person's voice. Furthermore, they claim that emotion influences the pitch, timing and voice quality of utterances. Therefore a conclusion can be drawn that the changes in voice accompanying emotions are determined by the physiological processes taking place in the body. Hence, the voice is a container for the emotions metaphor is motivated by human physiology.
Furthermore, one issue which is often neglected in cognitive linguistic literature is that not all the container metaphors for anger are motivated by physiological changes that take place in the body when a particular emotion is experienced. For instance, in the metaphorical expressions placed below the body is imagined to be soil. This yields the general metaphor the body is soil. One subcase of this metaphor is hidden anger is an object buried in soil:
It should be mentioned that the body is soil metaphor is motivated by the religious belief that the human body has been created by God from soil. For instance, in Genesis 2:7 it is said that Adam was made by God out of the dust of the earth.
Child-rearing is one of the most powerful, fundamental human experiences. The metaphor that is presented below is motivated by this experience. It maps the source domain of child onto the target domain of anger.
The below conceptual correspondences have been found in the anger is a child metaphor.
As is obvious, the anger is a child metaphor describes anger in terms of a child and an angry person in terms of the parent of that child. By doing so, the metaphor keeps us responsible for our anger. Furthermore, the source of anger is also conceptualized as a parent. In human society parents are responsible for their children's lives. The message conveyed by the metaphor is that in the same way as a human child may not survive without its parents' protection and nourishment, anger may not exist if we do not maintain it.
Another basic human experience is that of agriculture. Plants we grow provide our basic needs for shelter, food, medicines, clothing, etc. Therefore, the English language often conceptualizes anger as a plant. This yields the metaphor anger is a plant.
The following correspondences can be found in this metaphor.
The following stages of plant growth are mapped onto various stages of anger development in the above metaphor: seed, germination, root, bloom, fruition and withering. The seed image characterizes the initial stage of plant growth. This stage in the source domain correlates with the initial stage of anger development in the target. At this stage, anger comes into existence. Furthermore, the images like a germinating plant and a plant taking root, are also associated with early stages of plant growth. These stages in the source correspond to the early stages of anger development in the target. Moreover, humans view bloom as the best stage of plant growth. This is explained by the fact that people have positive associations with flowers because flowers induce the feeling of happiness in them. Therefore, the blooming stage of the plant's growth correlates with the best stage of anger development. Anger is a well-developed, full-fledged emotion at this stage. The fruition stage in the plant growth corresponds to the stage of anger development when the emotion leads to a concrete result. Finally, at the withering stage, the plant stops growing and it dies. This is the final stage of the plant life. Hence, the withering stage of the plant growth correlates to the final stage of anger development when anger ceases to exist.
It is important to mention that (88), which maps the fruition stage of plant growth onto anger, conveys the image of a bitter fruit. This image is used in order to symbolize the negative consequence of anger and such a conceptualization is motivated by our taste experiences. We have positive taste associations with sweet fruits and negative taste associations with bitter fruits. Therefore, we are more likely to conceptualize bad consequences of our emotions and deeds in terms of bitter tasting fruits and we tend to conceive of good consequences of our emotions and deeds in terms of sweet fruits.
Furthermore, in the anger is a plant metaphor, the size of the plant at different stages of its growth corresponds to the intensity of anger at disparate stages of its development. At the initial stages of growth, the size of the plant is not big. Therefore, the small-size plant images like the seed, the germinating plant and the root-taking plant are used in order to symbolize low intensity anger. The images like the deeply rooted plant and the blooming plant characterize large plants in later stages of their development. Such plant images symbolize high-intensity anger. The intensity of anger is equal to zero at the withering stage when the plant dies.
Moreover, the root of the plant correlates to the cause of anger in (87). In (85), the growth of the bud into the flower symbolizes the development of another emotion into anger (emotional transformation). Here the feeling of rejection is conceived of in terms of the bud and anger in terms of the flower. The two images conveyed - the bud and the flower - differ in size. The size of the flower is bigger than that of the bud. Here, anger symbolized by the flower is a more intense emotion than the feeling of rejection symbolized by the bud.
As we know, the size of the plant correlates with the intensity of anger in the anger is a plant metaphor. Furthermore, the less intense emotion (the feeling of rejection) is also understood in terms of an earlier stage of plant growth.
It should further be mentioned that the anger is a plant metaphor is grounded on the perceived similarity between plant growth and emotion development. As we know, a plant comes into existence, develops and withers away. Thereupon it is replaced by new plants that undergo the same life cycle. In a parallel fashion, an emotion comes into existence at a particular time, and then it develops and fades away. When this "emotional cycle" is over, we experience other emotions that develop in the same manner.
Moreover, the plant source domain is a domain where a great change takes place. A seed barely visible to the human eye grows into something very big. In a similar fashion, anger may be experienced with different degrees of intensity. Something that begins as mild annoyance may escalate into dramatic fury. These changes are often accompanied by bodily changes. In addition, other emotions may evolve into anger. Due to these reasons the plant source domain becomes a perfect source domain for the conceptualization of anger.
To sum up, the source-domain-oriented approach and the analogy-based method of identifying linguistic metaphors employed in this study have proven to be effective. They allowed the identification of a set of metaphorical expressions that have been classified under the following conceptual metaphors. These metaphors have largely been ignored in cognitive linguistic literature.
anger is a horse angry behavior is aggressive horse behavior angry speech behavior is aggressive snake behavior an angry gesture is snake behavior anger is an old snake skin hidden anger is an object buried in soil anger is a child anger is a plant
In addition, it was established that the English language frequently conceptualizes emotions as substances and fluids held in the voice. Hence, it is claimed that the anger is a substance in a container and anger is a fluid in a container metaphors instantiate two conceptual metaphors: the body is a container for emotions and voice is a container for emotions. The latter metaphor has not been given any attention in cognitive linguistic literature.
The question that will be addressed in the present section is whether the source domains of the anger metaphors analyzed in this study are specific to anger or whether they have an application outside the domain of anger. The answer to this question will shed light on whether we conceive of anger in an unprecedented way, that is, by virtue of source domains that are unique to anger, or whether we conceive of it by means of source domains that also apply to other emotions and non-emotional abstract concepts. In cognitive linguistics, this issue is termed the scope of metaphor. Thus, the scope of metaphor is a range of target domains to which a given source domain applies (see Kövecses 2002:108). The issue of the scope of metaphor has been developed by Z. Kövecses (2002:108-109, 2000:35-50). This is an important issue to address because it helps us understand how our conceptual system is organized. What is so far known about the issue is that most metaphorical source domains are not specific to the conceptualization of particular target domains. For instance, based on the investigation of the source domains of emotion metaphors, the author claims the following (2000:49):
Indeed, we have found that most of the source domains of emotion concepts have a scope of application that extends beyond the domain of emotion. These nonspecific source domains are parts of very general metaphorical mappings whose range of application covers large portions of our conceptual system.
In what follows it will be tested whether the abovementioned claim holds true for the source domains of the anger metaphors analyzed in this study. It should be mentioned, however, that within the framework of a single article it is impossible to present all the non-anger metaphors in which the source domains under discussion are encountered. Therefore my analysis will be limited to the metaphors used to make sense of some emotion concepts outside the domain of anger. Furthermore, from the list of non-emotional concepts onto which the source domains under consideration apply I have chosen the concept of idea. Due to lack of space, only the metaphors with the following source domains will be analyzed: horse, snake, container and plant.
The source domain of horse applies to a variety of target concepts with the domain of emotion. In the emotion metaphors that will be analyzed in this section it gets mapped onto the concepts of fear, sadness, pride/arrogance and love.
A specific type of pride is arrogance. In the following metaphorical expression, arrogance is characterized in terms of a horse:
At this stage, the question that inevitably arises is this: What makes the source domain of horse applicable both to anger and a variety of other emotion concepts? As mentioned before, the main focus of the horse source domain is the intensity and control aspects of an emotion. Thus, not only anger but many different emotion concepts have aspects of intensity and control. This makes the horse source domain applicable both to anger and other emotion concepts. Most emotion concepts have an intensity aspect because of the fact that emotions are experienced by people as highly intense states. This is not surprising given that emotions have a tendency to be accompanied by some strong bodily reactions. For instance, an increase in skin temperature and pulse rate occurs when we are angry; sweating may take place when we are in a state of fear, etc. Moreover, it was mentioned that in the folk belief emotions are viewed to be dangerous, things that need to be kept under control. Hence, emotions have a control aspect. In order to make sense of the two abovementioned emotion aspects the source domain of horse is mapped onto different emotion concepts.
As will be evident from the below linguistic metaphor, even the emotion of love which is predominantly described as a positive emotion is viewed as something that is in need of control. Therefore, love is understood in terms of a horse in this metaphorical expression.
The type of love described here as "unbridled" is very intense love, when one is head over heels in love. While not everybody would consider unbridled love as something negative, it is not uncommon in human society that such love is perceived as "irrational". For instance, some intense forms of romantic love are viewed to be fantasy-based by some people. It is believed that the person experiencing romantic love is in love with the conjured up, idealistic image of the beloved and not with a real person. Hence, love is understood to be something that needs to be kept under strict control.
The source domain of snake also applies to several target concepts within the general domain of emotion. In the following metaphors, it gets mapped onto the target domains of sadness, shame and fear.
Evidently, the old snake skin source domain occurs with such emotions that are viewed to be undesirable in the folk belief. Since the folk view considers several emotions as undesirable, this makes the old snake skin source domain applicable to all of them. Furthermore, the emotion metaphors with the old snake skin source domain analyzed in this study can be classified under the general metaphor an undesirable emotion is an old snake skin. The main focus of this metaphor is the undesirability of an emotion.
In the metaphors presented below, the container source domain applies to a wide range of emotion concepts such as pride, hatred, sadness and fear. In these metaphors the abovementioned emotion concepts are conceived of as fluids and substances held in the voice-container.
The above metaphors are the subcategories of the general metaphor emotions are substances in a container. In the following metaphors, pride, hatred, sadness and fear are conceptualized in terms of the fluids held in the voice.
The fluid metaphors presented above are the instantiations of the general metaphor emotions are fluids in a container. Here, an important conclusion can be drawn that the metaphors emotions are fluids in a container and emotions are substances in a container make use of two different container images: the body-container and the voice-container. Cognitive linguists have convincingly proven that the English language systematically conceptualizes emotions as fluids and substances held in the body-container. Now there can be no doubt that English also makes sense of emotions in terms of the fluids and substances held in the voice-container. The reason for this is that the physiological responses accompanying various emotions have an effect on the quality of voice. This enables us to identify disparate emotions experienced by people from the sound of their voice. Since there is a systematic correlation between the quality of voice and emotion, voice is conceptualized as a container for emotions.
In the below metaphors, the source concept of plant is mapped onto the target concepts of fear and pride. This shows that the domain of plant has an application outside the target domain of anger.
Generally, the conceptualization patterns in the above metaphors are similar to that of the anger is a plant metaphor. However, specific attention should be paid to the fact that the linguistic metaphor (132) conveys two opposite fruit images: that of the unripe fruit and the ripe fruit. The former symbolizes fear and the latter certainty. This conceptualization is motivated by our taste experiences. We have positive taste associations with ripe fruits because they are sweet and negative taste associations with unripe fruits because they are sour. Therefore, we conceptualize positive emotions and states as ripe fruits and negative emotions and states as unripe fruits. The fruit image in (138) reminds us of a rotten fruit with a beautiful exterior. It symbolizes dishonor - the bad consequence of pride. Thus negative consequences of an emotion can be described as rotten fruits.
Moreover, the plant source domain also occurs with the target domain of love. For instance:
This expression is the linguistic example of the metaphor love is a plant. In section 4.2.3, it was mentioned that there is a perceived similarity between plant growth and emotion development. This similarity makes it possible to apply the source domain of plant onto a variety of emotions such as anger, fear, pride, love, etc. Emotions are thought of as something that develops in stages with a beginning, an end and a culmination, etc.
So far I have analyzed the application of the horse, snake, container and plant source domains within the target domain of emotion. In what follows I show how the same domains apply to the non-emotional concept of idea.
The following metaphor maps the source domain of horse onto the target domain of idea. For instance:
In (140), the ideas generated by the employees of a company are understood in terms of horses. The following logic lies behind this way of thinking about ideas: Humans keep horses under control to use them for their own purposes. In a parallel fashion, the employees' ideas can be used by companies in order to gain profit or to achieve other goals. The task of the company is to handle innovative ideas and make those ideas work for the benefit of the company. To handle the innovative ideas in this manner means to use them in a controlled way. Here the perceived similarity between the horse control and the handling of ideas makes it possible to think of ideas in terms of horses. The danger of not using the employees' ideas in this way consists of the fact that the company may lose a part of its potential future profit.
Moreover, in (143), a negative idea is understood in terms of a horse that needs to be curbed. The reason lying behind this conceptualization is that the idea in question is understood to be harmful and as such subject to control. In (142), intense thoughts are conceived of as galloping horses. This shows that the concept of idea also has an intensity aspect. We know from our thought experiences that this process is very intensive. Therefore, we think and speak of our thoughts and ideas in terms of animals that run quickly back and forth in our minds. The control aspect of idea is very strongly emphasized in (141) and (144).
The metaphor presented below maps the source domain of old snake skin onto the target domain of idea.
It is obvious that since the main focus of the old snake skin source domain is the "undesirability" of an abstract concept, it can be applied both to the emotions and ideas that are understood to be undesirable.
The main focus of this section will be the container metaphors that conceptualize ideas in terms of fluids and substances held in a container. Thus in the following metaphor, ideas are thought of as fluids held in a container. However, different from the previously analyzed container metaphors of emotion, the container presented in the source domain of this metaphor is the body and not the voice.
Different from emotions, ideas are seldom conceptualized in terms of fluids held in the voice. The reason for this is obvious: there are no explicit vocal clues that would help us identify a person's thought processes. For instance, we cannot determine from the sound of a person's voice which idea or theory he/she is thinking about. This fact determines the difference in the conceptualization of emotions and ideas.
Moreover, ideas can also be conceptualized in terms of substances in a container. For instance:
Similar to the abovementioned case, the container presented in the source domain of this metaphor is the body. Nevertheless, some examples of metaphorical expressions in which ideas are spoken about in terms of the occurrences inside the voice exist, even though such expressions are rare. For example:
The plant metaphor of idea has been studied by G. Lakoff in his work Metaphors We Live By (Lakoff & Johnson 1980:47). Presented below are some metaphorical expressions manifesting the metaphor ideas are plants.
The stages of plant growth correlate with various stages of the idea development in the above metaphor. The metaphor conveys the images of the following stages of plant growth: seed, budding, bloom, fruition and withering. The plant source domain is applicable to ideas because of the perceived similarity between plant growth and idea development. An idea has a beginning when it comes into existence, after which we develop it over a certain period of time, and most of our ideas also have an end. When we think that we have developed an idea completely we start developing other ideas. This "idea cycle" is perceived to be similar to the plant cycle where the plant comes into existence, develops during a period of time and withers away. Thereupon new plants start growing. Moreover, we know from our plant experience that withering may also occur at the earlier stages of plant growth if we do not cultivate the plant properly. In a similar fashion, not all of our ideas become fully fledged and implemented, and an idea may disappear at early stages of its development if we make too many mistakes when developing it or for some other reasons. In (154) an idea fading away at the early stage of its development is described.
As is evident from the above analysis, the four source domains examined apply both to anger and other emotion concepts. This means that the source domains under consideration are not unique to anger, but they have an application that extends far beyond the anger domain. Moreover, the source domains of horse, old snake skin and plant apply both to emotions and ideas. This means that they have an application outside the domain of emotion. The container source domain also occurs both with emotions and ideas. However, the container metaphors of emotion use both the body and the voice as a container for emotions. The container metaphors of ideas use mainly the body as a container for ideas. The physiological processes taking place in the body when an emotion is experienced affect the quality of voice. This determines the fact that emotions are conceptualized as occurrences in the voice. There are no perceivable vocal clues that help us identify a person's thought processes and therefore ideas are not commonly conceptualized as occurrences in the voice. It is important to emphasize, however, that the voice source domain is not specific to emotions. For instance, the BNC contains many expressions like (161) His voice is dripping with sarcasm; (162) Her voice held no hope; (163) Her voice held determination which show that many non-emotional concepts can be understood in terms of the occurrences inside voice.
The abovementioned results favor Z. Kövecses' theory about the scope of metaphor. That is, the majority of the source domains that apply to emotions are not specific to emotions and they have a broader scope of application.
Based on the abovementioned analysis, some conclusions can also be drawn about the similarities and differences in the conceptualization of emotions and rational thought. The fact that the four source domains under consideration occur both with emotions and ideas show that there is a great deal that is shared in the conceptualization of emotions and thought processes. Both emotional experiences and thoughts are conceived of as processes developing in stages. Those stages are perceived to be similar to the stages of plant growth. Due to this reason both emotions and ideas are understood in terms of plants. Moreover, some emotions and ideas are viewed as undesirable in folk belief. The shared character of the folk view on such emotions and ideas allows conceptualizing them similarly, that is, in terms of an old snake skin. Furthermore, in the folk theory, emotions are understood to be dangerous and, as such, subject to control. The folk theory also views some ideas as being in need of control because of the fact that they are harmful or for some other reasons. Due to these facts, both ideas and emotions are understood in terms of horses. In addition, both emotions and thought processes are experienced as intensive. This fact also makes it possible to conceptualize them in terms of horses. Moreover, both emotions and ideas are understood as occurrences inside the body. Due to this reason, emotions and ideas are conceived of in terms of substances and fluids in a container.
At the same time, certain differences exist in the conceptualization of emotions and ideas. Emotions are conceived of in terms of fluids and substances held both in the body and the voice. However, ideas are more likely to be conceptualized in terms of fluids and substances held in the body for the reasons mentioned above.
There is a divided view on the conceptualization of emotions and rational thought in cognitive linguistic literature. For instance, according to Z. Kövecses (2000:196-197) there is a considerable difference in the conceptualization of emotion and rational thought. However, P. Koivisto-Alanko and H. Tissari (2006) emphasize that there is a great deal shared in the understanding of the two target concepts, even though some differences exist. The results of this section favor the latter view.
It is common knowledge in cognitive linguistics that some conceptual metaphors encountered in English have their counterparts in other languages. Such metaphors have a near-universal status. Near-universal metaphors are the metaphors that can be found in many unrelated languages of the world (Kövecses 2000:37). The embodied character of human cognition seems to be responsible for the existence of such metaphors. Cognitive linguists have convincingly proven that some common bodily reactions that are experienced by people, universally provide an experiential grounding for near-universal metaphors. For instance, our experience of anger is accompanied by such physiological reactions as increase in the skin temperature, blood pressure, etc. and this gives rise to the metaphor anger is heat in many genetically unrelated languages. One instantiation of this metaphor is the anger is a hot fluid in a container metaphor. The counterparts of this metaphor have been encountered in English, Hungarian, Japanese, Chinese, Zulu, Wolof and Tahitian (Kövecses 2002:165-170).
In connection with the above facts, the following questions arise. Do the anger metaphors analyzed in this study have their counterparts in other languages? If they have, what is the experiential grounding of such metaphors? Moreover, in the previous chapter, I demonstrated that the majority of the source concepts that apply to the target domain of anger in English have an application outside that domain. In this section, I will attempt to discover whether similar source domains which apply to the target concept of anger in other languages also occur with other emotions in those languages. [1]
In what follows, I will present metaphorical expressions from two languages that are not related to English. They are the Turkmen and Finnish languages. The Finnish language belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family and Turkmen is a member of the Turkic family. Occasionally, I will also mention some emotion metaphors from Mandarin Chinese that represents the Sino-Tibetan language family which is unrelated to English.
Furthermore, some emotion metaphors used in Russian and Swedish will also be analyzed. The two languages belong to the Indo-European language family; hence they are genetically related to English. Therefore the examples found in Swedish and Russian cannot be presented as evidence for the universality of the metaphors under consideration. This is because the similarities in metaphorical patterns existing in related languages may stem from the fact that the languages in question have originated from a common ancestor. Nevertheless, the Swedish and Russian examples are worth mentioning because they show the place the metaphors under discussion occupy in the conceptual systems of the two cultures.
The metaphorical expressions presented below are taken from Finnish and Turkmen. They are the linguistic examples of the metaphor anger is a horse. The Finnish examples and their translations were received from Heli Tissari via personal communication, 19 December 2007.
Here, the -ksi ending suggests that the harnessing or reining in of the anger produces the result of anger becoming a 'positive resource'.
Furthermore, in the Turkmen language the horse source domain gets mapped onto the general target domain of emotion.
This utterance is a linguistic manifestation of the conceptual metaphor emotions are horses. The example shows that in Turkmen, the source domain of horse is not restricted to the target concept of anger but it has a wider scope of application.
The existence of similar horse metaphors in the three typologically unrelated languages: English, Finnish and Turkmen can be explained as follows. For centuries people in different cultures have bred horses for their own purposes. Mainly, humans govern horses with the help of specific horse equipment which, among other things, includes bridles and reins. Since the experience of guiding horses is similar in different cultures this provides an experiential basis for similar horse metaphors in unrelated languages. In addition, there is also a common human tendency to conceptualize emotions in terms of animals. For instance, I have already mentioned the existence of the conceptual metaphor emotions are beasts in English. Similar metaphors have been found in some other languages (Talebinejad & Dastjerdi 2005). This factor also plays a role in the conceptualization of emotions in terms of horses in different languages.
Moreover, the horse metaphors of anger are commonly used in Swedish and Russian.
Furthermore, emotions in general can be understood in terms of horses in the two languages. For example:
The abovementioned linguistic metaphors show that in Swedish and Russian the source domain of horse has an application both inside and outside of the target domain of anger.
In Finnish, Turkmen, Russian and Swedish, anger can be conceptualized in terms of an occurrence inside voice. For instance, the metaphorical expressions presented below are the linguistic manifestations of the metaphor anger is a substance in a container. The container conveyed is voice.
It is evident from (172) that in Turkmen not only anger but also hatred is understood in terms of a substance held in the voice. In the following metaphorical expression taken from Turkmen, happiness is conceptualized in terms of a substance contained in the voice.
In the following linguistic metaphors derived from Swedish and Russian emotions in general are conceived of as substances inside the voice:
Moreover, in Turkmen and Russian anger can be conceived of as a fluid in the voice:
As is evident from the following examples, in both languages emotions are commonly conceptualized in terms of fluids in the voice.
The metaphorical expressions derived from Turkmen, Swedish and Russian show that the container source domain is not restricted to the target concept of anger. Other emotions can also be conceptualized in terms of fluids and substances held inside the voice in these languages.
Thus, anger and some other emotions in the three unrelated languages, English, Finnish and Turkmen are conceptualized as occurrences inside the voice-container. The existence of similar voice metaphors in these languages is determined by the universal physiological process whereby emotions have an effect on the quality of human voice. People across the world have the ability to detect various changes in voice quality when disparate emotions are experienced. This experience gives rise to similar voice metaphors in unrelated languages. Moreover, the analogical voice metaphors in Russian and Swedish show that the voice-container metaphors of emotion are an integral part of the conceptual systems of these languages.
It seems to be the case that anger in Finnish is conceptualized in terms of a plant. For instance, John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath has been translated into Finnish as Vihan hedelmät 'Fruits of Anger'.
Presented below is an excerpt from the lyrics to a Finnish rock song where fear is described as a plant.
Literally, this excerpt would sound as follows in English:
Moreover, both Russian and Swedish map the source domain of plant onto the target domain of anger. For example:
In both languages, love can be understood in terms of a plant. For instance:
Apart from this, some plant metaphors for emotions have been found in Mandarin Chinese and Turkmen. Just to exemplify, in the below metaphorical expression taken from Turkmen an emotion is conceived of as a plant.
Furthermore, in Mandarin Chinese the target concepts of love and happiness are understood in terms of plants. This yields the metaphors love is a plant and happiness is a plant (Lai & Ahrens 2001). The above examples show clearly that the anger is a plant metaphor is not specific to English. It is used in at least in one language unrelated to English, i.e., Finnish. Moreover, in the Finnish language, the plant source domain is not restricted to the target domain of anger; it applies at least to one emotion outside the domain of anger, that of fear. The plant source domain is not restricted to the target concept of anger even in Swedish and Russian. The examples from Turkmen and Mandarin Chinese can be taken as additional evidence that the plant source domain does not only occur with the target concept of anger. It is used in order to conceptualize diverse emotions in different languages. Now a question that naturally arises here is this: Why do different languages conceptualize anger and some other emotions in terms of plants? It has already been mentioned that humans have a centuries-long experience of growing plants. Therefore, tremendous knowledge that has been accumulated about plants is used by people in different cultures to conceptualize emotions. Since people in different cultures have the same experience of plants, this gives rise to similar metaphors in divergent languages.
One of the English anger metaphors analyzed previously was the metaphor angry speech behavior is aggressive snake behavior. This metaphor has its counterparts in Turkmen and Russian. The below linguistic metaphors are the surface manifestations of the metaphor angry speech behavior is aggressive snake behavior.
In the following metaphorical expression, taken from Russian, an angry twisting gesture is spoken about in terms of a snake behavior. It is the linguistic example of the metaphor an angry gesture is snake behavior.
In Russian, other emotional gestures can also be conceptualized in terms of a snake behavior. For example: (191) корчиться от ненависти "to squirm with hatred".
The metaphorical examples from Russian show that not only an angry behavior but also a hateful behavior can be conceptualized in terms of a snake behavior. This means that the snake source domain is not restricted to the target concept of anger in Russian.
As is obvious, both in Turkmen and English, a person's angry speech behavior is conceptualized in terms of the venom-spitting behavior of a snake. This can be explained by the similarity of the experience of snakes in the two cultures. People in many cultures experience snakes spitting venom as dangerous animals. Therefore it is not surprising that a person's angry speech behavior is understood in terms of the venom-spitting behavior of a snake. The snake metaphors taken from Russian show that they play a crucial role in the conceptualization of emotions in Russian.
In Finnish, Russian and Swedish anger can be conceptualized in terms of a child. The following metaphorical examples taken from these languages are the manifestations of the conceptual metaphor anger is a child.
Both in Russian and Swedish, other emotions than anger can be conceptualized in terms of a child. For example:
The following metaphorical expression is a headline from the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.
Summing up, the above analysis shows that a part of anger metaphors and other emotion metaphors analyzed in this study are not specific to English. They are encountered both in those languages that are typologically related to English (Swedish and Russian) as well as in those that are unrelated to English (Finnish, Turkmen and Mandarin Chinese). Many source domains that apply to anger in the analyzed languages also have an application outside the anger domain. This observation favors the cognitive linguistic view that the majority of the source domains apply to several target concepts.
In some cases, the similarity in the conceptualization of anger and other emotions in the above languages is determined by the universal physiological processes taking place in the body when an emotion is experienced. In other cases, similar physical experiences of domestic and wild animals give rise to similar metaphors in different languages. Yet, in other cases, the human experience of growing plants provides an experiential basis for similar plant metaphors in disparate languages. The results of this study provide evidence in favor of the view that similar human experiences motivate similar metaphors in diverse languages.
The source-domain-oriented approach that has been applied in this study has proven to be an effective method for metaphor identification. Its main advantage is that it is adaptable both to dictionary and corpus texts. However, one disadvantage of the method is that it is not straightforwardly applicable to the texts found on the Internet. The current study shows that the problem can be solved by employing the analogy-based pattern prediction method. This combined method helps to reveal many metaphorical mappings that have previously been overlooked. Moreover, a set of new conceptual metaphors of anger have been identified and accounted for. The metaphors analyzed highlight aspects of anger such as intensity, cause, control, desirability/undesirability, stages of development, anger maintenance, etc. Such physical experiences as child rearing, plant growing, experience of animals, and the physiological changes in the voice quality accompanying anger, provide an experiential basis for the metaphors analyzed. The voice-container metaphors provide evidence for the cognitive linguistic claim that human cognitive processes have a bodily basis. Some of the metaphors scrutinized are entrenched in Western culture and they are pervasive in its conceptual system. The general folk view of anger reflected in these metaphors is mostly negative. It is described as something that needs to be kept under control, something that needs to be gotten rid of, something that we should not maintain; especially, when people who have difficulty in getting rid of their anger are imagined to be snakes who have difficulty in shedding with pieces of old, necrotic, torn skins hanging off their bodies the resulting image is very unsympathetic.
The majority of the source domains analyzed have an application both outside the domain of anger and outside the domain of emotion. They have a vast range of application. This evidence favors the cognitive linguistic view that the majority of the source domains are not specific to particular target concepts but they have a broad applicatory scope. It has also been established that in many ways emotions and rational thought are conceptualized in a similar manner. However, there are also some important differences. Emotions are readily conceptualized in terms of fluids and substances held in the voice-container whereas ideas are more likely to be conceptualized as occurrences in the head. Put another way, the locus of emotions is in the voice, the locus of ideas is in the head.
Moreover, some of the metaphors analyzed in the study have their counterparts in other languages such as Finnish, Turkmen, Chinese, Swedish and Russian. The reason for the existence of such shared metaphors is explained by the fact that they are motivated by some common human experiences such as plant growing, animal domestication and physiological reactions in the body that affect the quality of the voice. The current study favors the cognitive linguistic view that common human experiences give rise to similar metaphors in disparate languages.
[1] In this section, the examples for which no source is given are from my own mental dictionary. Different from the previous two sections, here my aim is not to demonstrate how to retrieve linguistic metaphors. The aim is to show that the metaphors discussed in sections 4 and 5, that is, the metaphors used by English speakers, have their counterparts in other languages (the issue of universality). Here I partly relied on my own knowledge of the languages under discussion. However, examples of similar metaphorical expressions in these languages can easily be found in other sources (such as the Internet) as well.
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NOTE! This edition has been published in 2007. The contents have been verified in 2013 and many links are no longer available.
See http://www.helsinki.fi/varieng/journal/volumes/03/esenova/appendix.html


text:
It is billed as a unique take on the TV talent show, but BBC1's The Voice has proved controversial even before it has begun. From the creator of Big Brother, with a budget of £25m over two years, the singing contest has already become so important that the reputation of the BBC1 controller, Danny Cohen, is on the line.
But it faces the most difficult possible start, after ITV and Simon Cowell decided to greet its arrival by bringing forward the Easter juggernaut Britain's Got Talent by a month so the two could go head to head.
With a line-up of judges intended to appeal to all ages - including the 23-year-old Jessie J; will.i.am, 36; and Sir Tom Jones, aged 71 - The Voice differs from its rivals because the auditions are done "blind". Jones and his fellow panellists - or "coaches", in the parlance of the show - get to see what the singers look like only after they are chosen.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Power restored to Spokane Valley
January 3, 2013 12:42 p.m. - Updated: 3:32 p.m.
A power outage that left an estimated 1,300 customers of Vera Power & Light in southeastern Spokane Valley without electricity today for nearly two hours was the result of equipment failure at a substation, officials said.
Power was restored by 1:25 p.m., a utility spokeswoman said.
Vera is a publicly owned utility providing water and electricity to about 10,000 customers in Spokane Valley.


text:
The Sexual Assault Resource Team (S.A.R.T.) has two parts: (1) a prevention and education component, and (2) the hotline or counseling component. Both parts rely heavily on volunteers.
The prevention and education team accepts undergraduate volunteers, graduate students, staff and faculty. This team conducts programs to educate the University community about the issue of acquaintance/date rape. It is directed by the UM Police crime prevention officer. To volunteer, please call UM Police at (305) 284-6666 or contact Ken Lucas, Crime Prevention Coordinator, at (305) 284-1105.
The hotline or response team accepts graduate students, faculty and staff volunteers. There are volunteers on call 24 hours a day to assist rape victims, answer questions and to advise callers about University and community resources. The response team is under the supervision of the Counseling Center. Call (305) 284-5511 and ask for Drs. Cleary and Eberhardt to volunteer.
The S.A.R.T. program also needs help with ongoing publicity and marketing of the program. If you would like to help us stay visible on campus and in the University community, you may call either the Counseling Center at (305)284-5511 or Public Safety at (305) 284-6666. We are open to innovative ideas.